Currently, millions of dollars each year are utilized to cover medical expenses incurred in providing various medical services for low income individuals on various forms of government assistance, such as welfare and Medicaid and for elderly individuals that utilize Medicare. These medical expenses are primarily paid for by public funds, public health insurers, and private health insurers.
When medical services associated with trauma related care, such as automobile accidents, are provided to the low income individuals utilizing Medicaid and elderly individuals utilizing Medicare, the expenses associated with these medical services are primarily covered by either Medicaid or Medicare, depending on the type of benefits utilized by the individual receiving medical care. The funds covering such medial expenses are typically public dollars and put a strain on many budgets such as Medicaid and Medicare. The problem with this current system is that the public insurers, such as Medicaid and Medicare, are unable to fully recover funds expended on medical services in a situation where some third party is at fault and likely financially responsible for the medical expenses. For example, if a low-income individual on Medicaid or an elderly individual on Medicare is involved in a car accident in which a third party is at fault, any medical expenses incurred in the course of medical treatment obtained due to the accident will primarily be paid by the public insurer, such as Medicare or Medicaid, regardless of the fact that the third party is at fault in the accident, financially responsible, and should pay for these medical expenses. While state and federal governmental agencies do attempt to recover funds from responsible parties, there is no efficient way for a state and/or federal agency or private and public insurer to do so. Public and private insurers as simply unable to effectively gather data to enable them to pursue third parties at fault or the third parties' insurers to recover medical expenses incurred due to the third parties' liability.
In a majority of States, the automotive insurer of the “at fault” vehicle/driver is responsible monetarily, for all or a portion of the expenses and costs of medical services incurred by the “non-fault” party. However, many insurers, especially public insurers, do not adequately receive compensation from the “at fault” vehicle/driver or the “at fault” driver's automotive insurer because of the lack of definitive data regarding the accident including but not limited to the financially responsible automotive insurer's information. These insurers are losing millions, possibly hundreds of millions of dollars in uncollected compensation because of this lack of data.
Accordingly, a need exists in the art for a system and method that allows individuals to analyze data related to trauma related accidents, such as automobile accidents, from various different sources regardless of data format and utilize the data to assist in identifying potential liability sources.